Tuesday, January 15, 2013

The wholeness of life

It's difficult for me to convey this understanding of how the soul is made of the wholeness of life, and all of the action in it.

The sacred cannot be segregated; yet everything we do arises from the understanding that the coarse has to be separated from the fine, and the sacred has to somehow be segregated and made "special."

I think perhaps this is because our understanding of coarseness and fineness is an outward one, and is not understood in relationship to the question of the inner Self and the Soul. Inevitably, everything that is born in our minds segregates outwardly; we classify, we sort things out, we pop them into little boxes marked with their names. We do this self righteously, presuming that we are protectors of a tradition, or understanders of it who understand better than the rest.

It almost doesn't matter who we are or which tradition it is, does it? Always, this outward action and outward understanding gains strength, while the inner understanding, the separation of the coarse from the fine which pertains to the soul, is neglected. Our attachment to outer things is so strong that we believe in this life as though we would be in it forever; when actually, everything it has in it is very temporary. Only the information — the inward formation of the soul — really matters; and yet who attends to that, in this age of magical technologies? A small thing like the leaf of a plant, which might bring a great understanding if it were seen in the right way, means little or nothing to us these days. We know much about finances, but little about wealth.

The wholeness of life forms the soul; it is everything, not the parts that are segregated by us and set aside as special. The idea of Gelichgültigkeit, equanimity, all things being equal, should apply to outward life and its influences; yet this is just a theory in me. It's only with contact arising through finer forces, which are the only mediator of true understanding, that I can see how theoretical I am about this. Only if the actual higher substances that are needed enter and find correspondence in my psyche do I begin to understand properly. These enter physically; they are vibrations from a higher level. They arrive uniquely, specifically, and without announcements. They are a matter between God and man as unique individuals, not institutions.

In a conversation with a good friend (who is, coincidentally, a professor of philosophy) yesterday, we discussed the question of the un-manifest — the investigation of that which lies beyond appearances. Somehow, the search for the inner Self, the creation and nurture of the soul, all move in the direction of the un-manifest, what lies beyond the cloud of unknowing. Attached to the wholeness of life in its outward sense—unconscious, unmindful, thoughtless towards a higher principle—movement in this direction can't take place. Yet, paradoxically, it's only the wholeness of life that even makes movement possible — creation itself naturally serves the uncreated, acting as a crucible in which manifestation made conscious attempts to move towards the unknown which gave birth to it.

So without the wholeness of life made True through what is manifest, there is no path towards the un-manifest.

Ibn 'Arabi states that the un-manifest, the Transcendent, the Reality can never be known; it is a law. Yet at the same time, he cites knowing as the highest principle within the manifest. Knowing, in its highest form, does not segregate; it just knows. Perhaps we might call it seeing. All of the outward action exists objectively; it is the inner action of the unique subjective that resolves the contradiction between the ego and the soul, separates the coarse impressions of the ego from the finer ones of the soul, and draws distinctions not in the value of the outer world and its material, but the distinctions of the inner world and our perception of life.

Discrimination arises through the ingestion of all of life, and of the separation of my own attitudes from themselves. This is a sacred action; it involves a fineness of attention and an active intention of the moment, within.

If this doesn't happen, outer action and the outer world mean nothing. The greatest events with the largest amounts of force are insignificant in comparison to a man or woman's responsibility in this area of inner action.

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Recommendations and current reading list

Lee's current reading list (all recommended)

The Iceberg- Marion Coutts. This extraordinary book deserves to be read by every individual engaged in an inner search. The questions it raises about life, death, and relationship are framed by the authors responsibilities to her very young child and her dying husband. This is a book about real work in life, not esoteric theory.

Far From The Tree: Andrew Solomon. Parents, Children and the Search for Identity. Highly recommended.

Inner Yoga, Sri Anirvan—This extraordinary book is essential reading for any serious student of Gurdjieff or Yoga practice. Written at a level of both practical and philosophical discourse well above other contemporary work, Anirvan investigates the deep roots of Yoga practice, theory, and philosophy in a deeply sensitive series of insights. Of particular interest is the extraordinary and challenging piece on Buddhi and Buddhiyoga, which examines the questions of practice, life, and death with an acuity rarely encountered in other work of this nature.

Divine Love and Wisdom, Emmanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg gives us a detailed report on Reality as received from higher sources, reflecting many Truths one would be wise to study carefully. Readers will be astounded by the extraordinary degree of correlation between Swedenborg and Ibn 'Arabi. Many fundamental principles introduced by Gurdjieff are also expounded on in fascinating detail by Swedenborg. All of Swedenborg's works are well worth reading.

The Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom, Ibn 'Arabi. Another real gem, this book ought to be read by every seeker on the spiritual path. If you can only find the time to read one book by Ibn 'Arabi, this ought to be the one. By turns lighthearted, serious, insightful, and ingenius, al 'Arabi introduces us to our inner government character by character, explains their relationships, and indicates how to bring them into a state of harmonious cooperation. Written with love, the book deftly manages to avoid being didactic, delivering instead a sensitive, poetic, and even romantic look at how to organize our inner Being.

The Bezels of Wisdom—Ibn al 'Arabi. A compendium of observations about the nature of "The Reality"—what al 'Arabi calls God— from a 13th century Sufi master. This towering work easily holds its own against—and is worthy of comparison to—13th century masterpieces from other major religious traditions such as Dogen's Shobogenzo and Meister Eckhart's sermons.